Pride Month, and everyone’s favorite Bryan Fuller posted: a scene with the Marlanas, followed by Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting Judith Slaying Holofernes. We all know perfectly well that there are no random details in Hannibal. Every line of dialogue, every object in the frame, every painting means something.
The painting depicts the key moment of the story of Judith and Holofernes. Briefly: Judith, seeking to save her hometown, dresses in beautiful clothes and goes to the Assyrian camp with her maidservant. In the camp, she attracts Holofernes’s attention with her beauty and wisdom. He allows her to stay there. She spends three days in the camp, bathing at night with her maidservant in a spring. On the fourth day, when Holofernes, trying to seduce her, holds a feast and becomes drunk, she and her maidservant behead him and hide his head in a bag of provisions. The painting shows not simply the killing of a tyrant, but the victory of those considered weak over someone who possesses power. That is precisely why the reference is so interesting in the context of Margot and Alana.
Margot spent her entire life as a victim of her own brother. Mason abused her, controlled her life, took away her ability to have children, and literally treated her body as his own property (the scars on her back, the scenes from Season 2). Despite her family’s wealth and status, she existed almost as a prisoner. Like Judith, Margot is someone whom others perceive as weak. Alana also becomes the victim of a man who holds power over her. Hannibal uses her feelings, and after the events of the Season 2 finale she is left with severe consequences and a desire to regain control of her own life. In Margot’s story, she becomes the ally who does not turn away. The very maidservant who hides the “head” in a bag of provisions.
As in Gentileschi’s painting, two women act together. There is no male figure protecting them; instead, women stand in solidarity with one another, helping each other through a difficult situation without being afraid to get their hands dirty. It is especially interesting that Fuller references Artemisia Gentileschi’s version specifically, rather than simply the biblical story. In her interpretation, the emphasis is placed not on the heroism of Judith alone, but on the joint action of two women, their determination and mutual support. They function as a single unit. Margot and Alana function in exactly the same way. Judith and her maidservant strip Holofernes of his power. Margot and Alana strip Mason of his power. Both pairs commit a brutal act, but in both cases the violence is presented as a response to the years of abuse inflicted upon them.
Sorry if there are any mistakes here, I wrote in my native language for friends, then translated as best I could
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